Expecting to put on a musical show, singing and dancing college students are brought to a struggling hotel to be guinea pigs in an ancient Greek-themed eugenics experiment.
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Title: College Holiday (1936)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jack Benny | ... | J. Davis Bowster | |
| George Burns | ... | George Hymen | |
| Gracie Allen | ... | Calliope 'Gracie' Dove | |
| Mary Boland | ... | Carola P. Gaye | |
| Martha Raye | ... | Daisy Schloggenheimer | |
| Ben Blue | ... | Stage Hand | |
| Marsha Hunt | ... | Sylvia Smith | |
| Leif Erickson | ... | Dick Winters | |
| Eleanore Whitney | ... | Eleanore Wayne | |
| Johnny Downs | ... | Johnny Jones | |
| Etienne Girardot | ... | Prof. Hercules Dove | |
| Olympe Bradna | ... | Felice L'Hommedieu | |
 |
Louis Da Pron | ... | Barry Taylor |
| Jed Prouty | ... | Sheriff John J. Trimble | |
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Margaret Seddon | ... | Mrs. Schloggenheimer |
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Plot Summary
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Plot Synopsis
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Storyline
Sylvia Smith and Dick Winters share a romantic kiss at a dance, but Sylvia is called away before Dick can learn her full name. Sylvia's father is about to lose his California hotel, the Casa Del Mar, thanks to the financial blundering of his new business partner J. Davis Bowster. The mortgage is held by eccentric heiress Carola P. Gaye, whose current fascination is with the ancient Greek-style eugenics championed by Professor Hercules Dove. Carola plans to use the hotel as the center of her "Body Beauteous" selective mating program. Looking to raise funds with a collegiate musical show, Bowster gathers talent under the pretense of recruiting good-looking young people for Carola's eugenics experiment. Among the group are Dick Winters (still searching for his mystery girl) and Daisy Schloggenheimer (taught to resist male attention with physical force). Under strict orders to prevent any romance between the "guinea pigs", Bowster has great difficulty keeping the boys and the girls away ... Written by Jimmy L.
Plot Keywords:
spring break | characters named after colleges | song | singer | singing |Taglines:
The World's Five Funniest Comedians! (original print ad-all caps) See more »Certificate:
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Did You Know?
Trivia
One of over 700 Paramount productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since. See more »Goofs
In Miss Gaye's car, Bowster is clasping his toga closed at his breast with his left hand in practically all of the close-ups. In long shots, his hand's in his lap. See more »Quotes
J. Davis Bowster: Let me remind you again the three N's of the youth and beauty special. No necking, not now and nnn-nnn.See more »
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Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
19 December 1936 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Alegria a Solta See more »Filming Locations:
Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara - 1260 Channel Drive, Santa Barbara, California, USA See more »Company Credits
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Forget about plot! This is one example of the 1930s Paramount "Big Broadcast" and "college" series, all of which are entertaining during individual scenes. Eugenics was a popular topic of discussion during this era: one which later became discredited in large part because of "breeding" experiments in Nazi Germany. On a much less serious note, in this film we have a wacky "professor" and an even wackier wealthy patron (Mary Boland in great form) who bring a trainload of "Paramount Co-Eds" and college studs to be matched up, so as to produce perfect physical specimens, all the time dressed in pseudo-classic Greek togas and "sarongs". The prof's exemplar daughter is Martha Raye. Burns and Allen do a couple of comic bits totally unrelated to the "plot". Maltin calls all this silly. Who can deny it? If you stop looking for anything to think about and relax, you'll have an intermittent good time, and if you doze off it won't make much difference (Dorothy Lamour and Marjorie Reynolds appear briefly as co-eds, but viewers probably won't spot them.)